This invention relates to the field of exercise games, more particularly to apparatus for use in games to be played in swimming pools and to methods of playing the games.
Swimming pools are used by children and adults for recreation, most often for swimming, diving, cooling off, and in some cases for games which require equipment such as basketball nets which adhere to the sides of the pool, swimming training equipment, flotation devices, and elastic exercise devices which restrain a swimmer from moving in a forward direction when swimming.
Various devices have been proposed to enable pool exercise and game play, for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,815 to Riera discloses a swimming exercise and training apparatus having a flotation member sized and shaped to be positioned against a portion of a swimmer's upper torso with straps, cords, and suction cups arranged to retain the flotation member and therefore the swimmer in place in the pool while the person swims against resistance caused by the retention of the flotation member relative to the side of the pool.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,514 to Horn discloses another form of swimming exercise device which engages a side of a pool with suction cups which are on the ends of a rigid tubular member which is in turn connected to a harness to be worn by a swimmer who can swim against the resistance caused by being attached to the side of the pool through the harness, rod, and suction cups.
There are toys which comprise objects which can be thrown into a swimming pool designed to sink to the bottom and used in a game wherein swimmers compete to swim to the bottom of the pool and pick up the objects. Such games provide both entertainment and physical exercise.
There has been a long-felt need in this art for different game systems which allow swimmers to play underwater, compete with other swimmers, and which also provide entertainment and exercise.